Wizz Air Holdings PLC carried 5.35 million passengers in January, up 8.5% on the year before, as the airline passed the 500 million passenger milestone and reached 1,000 active routes.
The FTSE 250-listed carrier filled 84.4% of its 6.34 million available seats, a dip of 1.6 percentage points compared with January 2025.
The Geneva-headquartered airline now connects 200 destinations in more than 50 countries, and said its fleet is expected to grow from 231 to 334 aircraft by 2030 and forecast it could carry another 500 million passengers within five years.
The update follows quartely results last week, where Wizz cut net losses to €139 million from €241 million a year earlier for the three months to 31 December as passenger numbers grew 12.5% to 17.5 million despite ongoing disruption from grounded Pratt & Whitney engines.
Analysts at Citi said that while the airline's revenue per seat has held steady this year despite 10% capacity growth, next year’s planned 20% expansion comes at a more challenging time.
Schedule data suggests Ryanair is stepping up growth on Wizz’s key routes, raising the risk of price cuts.
Ryanair’s larger network, lower unit costs and stronger balance sheet all give it an advantage, the analysts said, with the Irish budget carrier operating on 16% of Wizz’s network, compared with Wizz’s presence on just 6% of Ryanair’s.